Pages

Monday, July 23, 2012

Death Comes to the Manuscript

If you're from New Mexico, you probably had to read Willa Cather's DEATH COMES TO THE ARCHBISHOP in high school, the historical novel about the Catholic church coming to this part of the country.

If you're an author, you've probably experienced Death Comes to the Manuscript, that sad but necessary moment when you close the door on an old piece of writing.

For me, Manuscript Death struck twice recently: novels two and three in my file cabinet have been laid to rest (As an aside -- Novel one was horrendous and needs to stay locked away. Novel four is the one that sold. I'm hoping novel five will also see the light of day).

These two fought the good fight. I revised both for years. Number two I started when my now eleven-year-old was born. It's gone through a POV change, a timeline tightening, and dozens of major overhauls. It received a "champagne rejection"* from a lovely assistant editor at Bloomsbury in 2004. My agent loves it. My editor doesn't. But in re-reading it last week, I realized if I was to overhaul it one more time and try again, there was little I could salvage. It was time to let it go.

Number three was eerily similar to Sarah Weeks's PIE, right down to the dueling siblings, the baking contest, and the stolen recipe (there's more, but I don't want to give too many plot points away). The two differences? My story was about snickerdoodles and wasn't half as good as Sarah's. It was time for this one to give up the ghost, too.

I thought it would be hard to walk away from these manuscripts, but somehow it's oddly freeing. They both taught me a lot about writing; both story lines will continue to remain dear to me. They're just not stories for the world at large. And you know what? That's okay.

Has Death ever come for one of your Manuscripts? What was the experience like for you?

*A rejection so positive it's worth celebrating.

How many cliches have I used in this post? Count them up and leave your answer below. One commenter will win a packet of MG and YA bookmarks.

I have closed the coffin on a couple of incomplete manuscripts, but all the finished ones are still out there, fighting to live.

I'm not counting, of course, anything I wrote before 2000. There are two completed MG manuscripts moldering away in their vaults, but I don't usually give them a passing thought. As far as I'm concerned, my writing began afresh in 2005 when I started working on what would become We Hear the Dead. I refuse to acknowledge any novels I wrote before then! :D

I have a few mss like this, and a few unfinished ones that are sort of on life support, like Dianne mentions. I don't feel bad about it--I tell myself there are more stories where those came from, and I think fondly of the characters sometimes.

Recently, an editor asked about a novel I had not finished before we moved to Egypt. I had FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT! Why hadn't I sent it??? Then i reread the first chapter and it all came back to me. The first chapter was YUCK. But it had been so long, I just started over. Still not sure, but I plan to read it, now with distance, and see if it lives or if I'm seeing ghosts.

DISCLAIMER

The authors of Project Mayhem do their best to provide accurate, witty, and sometimes manic information pertaining to all things middle grade. Any resemblance to anybody else's manic, witty, and accurate information is purely serendipitous. However, the views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect those of the other writers on this blog. Except, we all agree that reading Project Mayhem will brighten your day. Drop by mic.